The Spice Girls are the latest example of feminist backlash run amok. Here we have five young beauties who are making millions of dollars off preteens, all the while shouting “Girl Power!” On their “Oprah” show appearance (Jan. 14), their main topics of discussion were their own appearance and friendship, how they spent their first paychecks and what they look for in boyfriends.
The high school where I teach was invited to send 50 girls to be in the studio audience for what was supposed to be a forum on issues facing girls today. They were instead subjected to an hourlong Spice Girls commercial. Guess what their parting gifts were? Spice Girl dolls and makeup.
The marketing geniuses behind the Spice Girls have done what the news media have done to feminism for 20 years–stood it on its head. The idea that a girl can “be whatever she wants to be” for these anti-feminists only includes how a girl looks and feels.
“Express your individuality!” the Spice Girls hollered as they flitted about Oprah’s stage. Their marketers would have girls believe that wearing cool clothes, or barely any clothes at all, makes them liberated.
“Girl Power” is not, in fact, about what girls look like–it is about what they think and do with their lives. It is also about breaking down stereotypes and refusing to buy into the advertisers’ credo of what a girl or a woman should be.
The girls from my school who attended Oprah’s show weren’t fooled. They knew better. Shame on Oprah for selling out to showbiz and marketing at the expense of the millions of young female viewers who could have been taught a much different lesson about what it means to have “Girl Power.” Dolls and makeup indeed.
